“Is he a nice man?” Henry asked. “I don’t want you mixed up with some rascal.”
“He’s not a rascal, Daddy. He’s extremely nice and really has it going on.”
“Well, if he can afford an apartment in your building, he must be halfway decent,” Meredith commented.
“He’s more than halfway decent,” I said. “He’s an incredible man.”
Henry cleared his throat. “Does he know about, umm, does he know . . . ”
“About my situation?” I asked.
“Yes. Your situation.”
I really didn’t want to respond to that. I was still trying to deal with the conversation Jon had with Mason in his car and him coming up to her place afterward. Not to mention all the other shit they had been doing together.
“Well, does he know, Jonquinette?” Meredith inquired. “It’s okay, Precious, you can talk to us.”
There she went with that damn Precious again!
“Mason knows everything. He’s accepted it and plans to help me through this. So, you see, while it would be nice to have the two of you around, I can manage. I’m a grown woman, even though I act childish at times, and I have to start living my own life. I’ve got Mason now, and I can understand your logic behind moving to North Carolina. Flower needs both of her parents nearby during her upbringing and I’m sure her mother has no intention of moving to Atlanta.”
Meredith seemed uncomfortable when I mentioned Flower’s mother. That was her stupidity because she knew that she didn’t birth her. Thank goodness because the poor child would have been doomed if she had.
I knew what both of them were thinking, even though they weren’t talking about it. Jon had never had a boyfriend, not ever, and now all of a sudden she had one in her mid-twenties. Not to mention during such a tumultuous period in her life.
I decided to elaborate. “It’s weird, finding a man that I mesh with after all these years. He took me completely by surprise. I met him in the hallway one day, the next week he stopped by with a pie, and it’s been a whirlwind romance ever since.” Meredith didn’t seem like she was quite buying it so I added, “Momma, that’s one reason why you haven’t heard from me too much lately. I’ve been seeing a lot of him. We even attended a wedding together.”
That was a flat-out lie and if it were drama day for me instead of fishing expedition day, I would have really said, “He and I ended up at the same wedding and to make sure I had some ammunition to use later on, I fucked the best man.”
I chuckled as they both stared at me. I wondered what their reaction would have been if I had really blurted that out.
Flower came into the kitchen. “Are the cookies ready yet, Miss Meredith?”
Meredith ran over to the stove like she was Flower’s nanny or some shit like that. “Yes, they are, sweetie. Why don’t you go wash your hands in the little girls’ room while I make you a plate of cookies and a glass of milk?”
Flower pouted. “I want some of the tea Daddy made.”
“Okay,” Meredith conceded. “But just one glass of tea. We wouldn’t want you to consume too much sugar. You’re a growing girl.”
Flower looked at me and asked, “What does consume mean, Sis?”
“It means eat, drink, take in,” I replied, irritated.
Just when I was about to make a speedy exit, Meredith dropped a bombshell.
“Um, Jonquinette, we were going to call you earlier to ask you for a favor.”
“What favor?” I asked, hoping the Queen Bitch wasn’t going to ask me to do something ridiculous.
“Henry and I have tickets for a play this afternoon at the Neighborhood Playhouse and we were wondering if you could watch Flower for us.”
I glimpsed down at Flower, who grabbed my arm excitedly. “Yeah, Sis, can I hang out with you?”
Henry said, “We’d really appreciate it, Jonquinette.”
It became painfully clear that Meredith and Henry were caught up in their own little world and not thinking clearly. If Jonquinette were really Jonquinette at the moment, which she wasn’t, and agreed to watch Flower, what did they think would happen if Jude showed up and took over, which I already had. After all the negative things that had been said about me, why would they risk the possibility of me ending up baby-sitting Flower? Stupid asses!
All three of them anxiously awaited my answer. I had planned to go find some dick action that afternoon to relieve some stress. Baby-sitting would definitely put a damper on my plans, but Jon would never think of telling them no so I had to suck it up and say, “Sure! I’d love to spend the afternoon with Flower!”